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04/13/2018

IKEA Founder Leaves Little to His Family

“Ingvar Kamprad was one of the richest men on the planet. But his heirs will only get a fraction of his billions.”

IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad died late last month at age 91. He was one of the richest people on earth, thanks to the great success of his retail furniture empire. The notoriously frugal entrepreneur was ranked number eight on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His fortune was estimated to be about $73.8 billion.

Most of the IKEA furniture stores are owned by the Stichting Ingka Foundation. The Dutch entity’s objective is to donate to charity and “supporting innovation” in design. The company was started by Kamprad in the ‘80s and is outside his family’s control.

The company is controlled by Liechtenstein-based Interogo Foundation, and its subsidiary, Inter IKEA, is the global IKEA franchisor.

In addition to philanthropy, the Foundation also allows for profits to be reinvested into the company. The foundation in effect owns itself. As such, Kamprad’s family can’t own any shares.

The reason for doing this was to ensure IKEA’s long-term survival. It’s now impossible for any individual person to take control of the company after Kamprad’s death — even a direct heir. Therefore, Kamprad’s family won’t have control over the IKEA company. But they will get modest sums from Ikano Group, a company that is worth billions of dollars in its own right.

That company is owned by the family and runs several businesses in the finance, real estate, manufacturing, and retail industries.

Per Heggenes, CEO of the IKEA Foundation said in 2012 that Kamprad was “not interested in money.”